Evaluating Sources

As a university student, you will need to find and use a variety of sources in your coursework and research. In most cases, the best place to find quality information is your institution’s library, searching in person or via online databases (Burnell et al, n.d.). However, there will also be times when you need to find information using web browsers (e.g., Google Chrome) and search engines (e.g., Google Scholar).

Regardless of how you find your sources, it is essential that you evaluate each source for quality before deciding to use it in your coursework or research. Evaluating sources for quality is especially important for open access sources that you find using web browsers and search engines because these sources are not published through traditional methods, and many are not peer-reviewed.

When evaluating the sources you find through online searches, it is advisable to evaluate each source based on the following criteria:

• type of source
• content and audience
• and author’s authority

Type of source

In research, sources can be classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary. The type of sources you need for your projects will depend on the research questions you are asking and the arguments you are making.

Primary sources are “original” data or evidence created by the authors. These sources vary in format depending on the discipline in which they are being used. For example, in science, primary sources are generated by scientists doing experiments. The primary sources are the results of the experiments. In English, primary sources are the texts (e.g., books or poems) that scholars are analyzing, such as the novels of a particular writer. And in sociology or history, the primary sources could be the interviews recorded and transcribed by a researcher.

Secondary sources provide an interpretation or analysis of primary sources. Tertiary sources summarize primary and secondary sources.

You may use one or all of these types of sources throughout the research process (Attridge Bufton & Samokishyn, 2022).

Content and audience

Sources can also be categorized by content and audience. Academic, popular news, and social media sources are categories that identify sources in terms of the content (the information presented) and audience (individuals or groups for which the information is intended).

Categorizing sources is an important step in the process of evaluating sources to determine if they are appropriate for a given research task. In addition, it is also important to understand what types of sources you could use and in what context.

Typically, your instructor will identify the types of sources that are required for a given academic project. When you are searching for sources, you must understand the type of source you are required to use and differentiate between the various sources you find in your information searches so that you choose the right types of materials for your project (Attridge Bufton & Samokishyn, 2022).

Author’s authority

Sources should also be evaluated in terms of the authority of the author and any inherent bias that might be embedded in the creation of a source. An author’s authority is determined by their knowledge, expertise, and credentials (e.g., education) that empower them to be authorities on a given subject.

Authority is not a given. Instead, it is “constructed” or created within a community based on key ideas and beliefs. Different communities will recognize not only different forms of authority but also the different forms of information considered to be authoritative. Consequently, authority is also “contextual”—it depends on the circumstances, environment, and setting in which it is created. As a result, sources must be evaluated in terms of the authority of the authors as well as the context in which they are created.

For example, peer-reviewed journal articles are considered authoritative academic sources because the authors have the credentials (i.e., academic degrees) required for this type of work. They produce their data according to academically approved methods (e.g., by experiments or archival research), and their work is reviewed and approved by their peers before being published.

However, we must also consider factors such as privilege and positionality when evaluating sources. An author’s authority, and therefore the authoritative nature of certain forms of information, can reflect embedded biases that privilege some authors (and communities) over others and call into question the nature and validity of various sources (Attridge Bufton & Samokishyn, 2022).